Magnus Carlsen’s Biorhythms

In the article at Chessbase, Not quite unprecedented, by Carlos Alberto Colodro, much was made of the fact that current World Chess Champ Magnus Carlsen lost two consecutive games in rounds four and five in the 2023 Tata Steel Chess tournament.

“Before the rest day at the Tata Steel Masters, Carlsen had lost to Anish Giri, and in the very next round, he was shockingly defeated by 18-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The last time Carlsen had lost two classical games in a row was in 2015, at the Norway Chess event, where he lost to Veselin Topalov and Fabiano Caruana in the first two rounds of the super-tournament.” (https://en.chessbase.com/post/tata-steel-chess-2023-r5-b)

There is a box in the article which contains the number of Carlsen losses since 2013:

Amount of losses in classical chess for Carlsen by year:
2013: 4
2014: 6
2015: 10
2016: 3
2017: 6
2018: 2
2019: 0
2020: 2
2021: 2
2022: 1#TataSteelChess
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) January 19, 2023

Anyone who knows anything about statistics knows that without context numbers are meaningless.

For example, the two games Magnus lost during the pandemic year could be more, percentage wise, than the ten lost in 2015. Without knowing how many games were contested by Magnus for the above years the numbers are meaningless.

Things would have been different if the writer had, for example, taken time to research his subject. The author also could have researched how often the other World Chess Champions had lost two consecutive games, which would have added something interesting to the article.

The article did stoke my curiosity, causing me to wonder why Magnus played such poor Chess moves. I researched the earlier tournament in order to learn the dates of the two games that were lost back in 2015. Then I went to the preferred biorhythm calculator (https://www.biorhythm-calculator.net/) to check what it displayed for Magnus at the beginning of the 2015 Norway Chess event:

Magnus finished the tournament one-half point out of last place in the event, winning two, drawing three, and losing four games. The above chart shows Magnus intellectually low for the entire tournament.

Contrast the above chart with the one below:

Norwegian Chess Federation Offered Big Bucks by Online Gambling Operator Kindred Group

Ilan Rubin,

publisher of Elk and Ruby Publishing House sent an email after the last post in which he wrote, “Worse things are happening in Norway…” He provided a link to the Twitter account of Chess journalist Tarjei J. Svensen,

who writes (or is that ‘twits’?):

BREAKING; Norwegian Chess Federation offered a sponsorship deal of NOK 50 million (€5,1M) by online gambling operator Kindred Group, pending approval by the congress in July.
9:52 AM – 7 Jun 2019

Tarjei J. Svensen
‏ @TarjeiJS
Jun 7

Not a traditional sponsorship deal. The chess federation will not promote gambling or advertise for gambing sites in any way, but will work with the group to allow licenses in Norway.

Tarjei J. Svensen
‏ @TarjeiJS
Jun 7

For the record, revenues in the federation in 2018 was NOK 2,5M, (€2,55M)

Tarjei J. Svensen
‏ @TarjeiJS
Jun 7

That should read 255,000 Euro obviously.

Farao
‏ @akPharaoh789
Jun 7
Replying to @TarjeiJS

I am not sure but isn’t this “Unibet” ?

Tarjei J. Svensen
‏ @TarjeiJS
Jun 7

Unibet is among the companies they own, yea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_Group …
0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes

Ilan weighs in with a Twit:

Elk and Ruby
‏ @ilan_ruby
Jun 7
Replying to @TarjeiJS

This is fundamentally wrong. Let’s not turn our kids into gambling junkies.

This is followed by:

Graham Stuart
‏ @GraStuart
Jun 8
Replying to @TarjeiJS

The Isle of Man Chess tournament was sponsored by Pokerstars and is now funded by ex owner. But when Pokerstars sponsored this they were justva poker sight and did not have the other gambling income streams.

Rok Novak
‏ @Rok_Novak
Jun 7
Replying to @TarjeiJS

Cool! Chess and poker belong together! 😍

There are other twits to read if any twit is interested. You can check it out here: https://twitter.com/TarjeiJS/status/1137039580509757447

The character on TV, Doctor House, played by Hugh Laurie,

was fond of saying, “Everyone lies.” I am fond of saying, “Everyone gambles.”

You can even place a wager on a Chess game! Check out the “Chess Betting Odds” website:

https://sports.bwin.com/en/sports/67/betting/chess#sportId=67

Each and everyone reading this, and everyone who will not read this, gambles each and every day, and they gamble with their life. Most people usually do not consider the odds when making a short trip to the store, but the fact is that it is not 100% positive a person will return home safely. Read the book:

Everyone gambles in some form or another. Consider this headline:

The Gambling Nuns of Torrance, California

Thou shalt not steal…unless you’re one of the Vegas-loving nuns who allegedly took the Catholic school under their watch for every penny they could. A Southern California community reckons with an altogether new form of churchly hypocrisy.

By Sean Flynn June 5, 2019

https://www.gq.com/story/gambling-nuns-of-torrance-california

Blindly Cheating Chess

Life-Time Ban Visually Impaired Player For Cheating

by TarjeiJS

A visually impaired chess player has been permanently banned by the Norwegian Chess Federation (NSF) after having been caught red-handed with an earplug glued to his palm during a game against a nine-year-old girl. Norwegian chess reporter Tarjei J. Svensen tells the story.

The player, 52-year-old Stein Tholo Bjørnsen,

was caught just two months after he had completed serving a two-year ban for prior cheating.

The verdict in this remarkable cheating case, reached at a board meeting of the federation at the end of May, was historic. It’s the first time in the history of the NSF that a player received a life-time ban from domestic competition. Although Bjørnsen still has the opportunity to appeal the suspension, the evidence and severity of the case leaves little hope for the verdict to be changed.

“We have zero tolerance when it comes to cheating, and we want all our members to play according to the rules,” Morten L. Madsen, President of the federation, said in a statement.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/life-time-ban-visually-impaired-player-for-cheating

Visually-impaired Norwegian Champion Caught Cheating Against a 9-Year Old Girl Red-handed, Receives Lifetime Ban from chess

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind

Scandals at the Bermuda Party

The chess24 website (https://chess24.com/en) contains an article, “The Bermuda Party – a retrospective.” (https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014/news/the-bermuda-party-a-retrospective)
Over on the right side there is a list of the top ten “Popular Players.” World human Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the list. With the exception of #3 Vugar Gashimov , who died far too young, and #6 Garry Kasparov, the man who will be remembered only for losing to a computer program known as Deep Blue, the list shows most of the top human players today, with the exception of #2, Anna Rudolf. Having never heard of the woman, I decided to check her out. Keep in mind this list is on the page with skant news of the Bermuda Party, where one also sees this: Tarjei J. Svensen @TarjeiJS
“So a couple of scandals at the Bermuda party, but “what happens in #BermudaParty stays in Bermuda Party” – sorry guys 🙂 #ChessOlympiad”
I clicked on her name and, wa-la, there she was. Well, it is actually a picture of Anna. I immediately understood why she was on the list and also wondered why she is only #2. It shows her ranked 4429 in the world, but it does not specify if that is overall or as a woman player. She is rated 2314 and is from Hungary. Too bad I don’t do pictures, huh guys? I leave that up to GM Kevin Spraggett. (http://kevinspraggettonchess.wordpress.com/) There are, though, a few pictures of the Bermuda party. In addition, one can watch the movie, “Chess Fever.”
Speaking of pictures, on the home page there is a picture to the left of Magnus of the lovely WGM Melanie Ohme. As the Legendary Georgia Ironman can attest, I have been an admirer of the young woman for awhile now. I always refer to her as “Melanie Ohme (Ohmy!)” I may be old, but I still like to gaze upon a pretty face. Women may not be as strong at playing the Royal game, but they sure look better while playing! Thus proving that not all of the changes in chess have been bad.

Rock’n Roll SCANDAL